Ocean's Breath Plateau eld-aunt

chakliux brought a fish from the sea to the lodge of his wife @Tullik.
he had wrestled in the cold saltwater for a long while with it; his shoulders and his neck hurt.
but in its mouth he had stuffed turtle eggs, paused to purloin from a nest on his way up the beach. 
"annak," chakliux greeted with a tired grin when he had set the fish down in its butchering-place.
inside her lodge, he spoke almost completely in seal hunter words, pausing to translate a sound or phrase for tullik. she wished to be a seal hunter, and so she would be one. "kakiniq," he said as he relaxed along the warm lodge-wall. "markings. for your face, like the ones on my face and my shoulders. what do you think?"

Tullik, herself wash in salt crystals, had been busy herself. A swath of kelp lay drying in the entrance of the den, ready to be prepped into strips of bandage, or woven into a carry bag for herbs, quick to fall apart, but an easy means of transport.

She came to him still damp around the back and the neck, saltwater dried into her scent, tail waving idly. The sea had rewarded them dearly today, and she chuffed her appreciation with a wiggle of her whiskered nose against the side of Chakliux’s face.

His words came to her then and she let out a soft noise of curiosity.

The scars? She questioned without trepidation, mere curiosity in her tone.

tullik had strengthened, grown into her place beside the sea. if she missed the mountains and their paths, it did not show. chakliux caught appreciatively at her fur, tasting the ocean on her hackles.
"some seal hunter women adorn themselves with these scars, for their own reasons." his eyes were bright. "cut deeply. black shell rubbed into it. very much pain. but very beautiful. yet you would be either way, annak!"
his voice, a tease; his eyes, gleaming.

Her response was initially a good natured eye roll, the smile on her face wiping away any attitude the motion might have had on someone else. A teasing snap near one of Chakliux’s ears was next, before she began to speak.

Black shell…we will need to gather this before? She mused aloud, before her eyes flicked back to her husband.

I am interested. Where would the scars go? On Chakliux, the face and the shoulder. On her?

"abalone," he nodded, pleased that tullik warmed so swiftly to the ways of a seal hunter wife. "our women wear their marks wherever they desire. each mark means something else. some beautify their faces. others, their shoulders. others lie down and have themselves decorated, their bellies, their wombs, a charm to ensure they are mother to many."

She listened attentive, ears in sharp focus as she idly combed her teeth through Chakliux’s fur.

Face, shoulders, stomach. Womb. Mother to many, Chakliux’s words hummed, and she found herself tipping into the favor of that. She pursed her lips, pausing her ministrations for a moment to think over what to do next.

My stomach. There. Tullik spoke after a moment of thought, mind settling comfortably on the idea.

Wearing the mountain scar on her shoulder, the seal hunter scar on her belly, a straddle of two worlds brought together to one body.

his eyes shone; he looked down to the belly which would first bear a mark, and then perhaps children. one day.
his eyes found her own.
"a woman must do this mark. do you think sialuk would do this?"
the second was the moon woman, but chakliux still did not think he would gain her favor.

Tullik’s eyes went distant, her mouth pursing in thought. Would Sialuk do such? This, she did not know, but it would not hurt to ask her.

Once we have gathered the abalone, I will travel to Moonspear to ask her this. The loom of the mountain would be over her head once again. She swallowed.

I will also tell Sialuk of my moving. Are we to stay in Moontide? She thought they were going to, for now at least, unless Chakliux wished for his own claim along the shore.

"we shall travel together, wife," chakliux murmured, though if tullik insisted, he would not press. "i wish moontide to stand strong. this means rodyn may take another wife. but if he does not, i will stay until i can leave. i wish for us to join ariadne in moonsong. you, wife, you decide if you will stay here with me or go there now. we have not yet climbed the glacier. i do not know what is above."

He spoke of Moonsong, of the woman Ariadne, and to that Tullik only bounced her brows a few times.

Will there be third wife in our lodge? The tease was gentle, before she dropped again into seriousness.

I will visit this Moonsong. This glacier. I shall know its paths before I make my decision.

"ariadne? no, she is a sunshine woman. one man, i think." now he pretended to prowl toward tullik again, nipping toward her ear. "do not forget seal hunter women are free," he murmured, before drawing aside with a nod. "yes. go there, wife. let your eyes see this place first."